I was away from my country living today, and was in and around Dublin for the day. Being one to always be on the lookout for flowers and gardens, it struck me how many home gardens I saw. Gardens in very, very small spaces and with beautiful flowers! It was clear that no matter the size or location, the gardens were well tended and cared for; all throughout the Dublin area. The predominant flower was definitely roses. There wasn’t one color in particular that stood out, but rather, every color was represented. It was such a treat to see! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take any pictures (and you know I would have if I could have!).

Floribunda Rose Burgundy Ice

This evening my son had a Gaelic football match in a nearby village. I think it would be safe to say that it was “in the country”. I was no less impressed on our drive there with the fantastic gardens in the front yards of houses. It is lovely how attentive people are to their gardens. I really like getting glimpses into different gardens, ideas, and flowers, especially when I’m not driving! 🙂

Hybrid Tea Rose Pink Peace

What a lovely day I’ve had. It was nice to really appreciate all that was around me. I still get moments of “wow, I live in Ireland”!

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868)

ground cover flowers in my rose garden

But mostly, I get feelings of “wow, I really like my garden”…

A view of the rose garden

It is a work in progress. But it is all a labor of love.

A glimpse of the roses at our front gate

I hope there is a beautiful garden near you to make you smile! Or at least, I hope a glimpse into my garden will make you smile 🙂

The dreaded blackspot has returned to my roses this year. Oh how my heart sank when I first saw it on those pretty rose leaves that seemed to be so healthy! But treating blackspot with milk? Really? Are you sure??? Well, here is my story so far! I love roses. So much so that they were the first flowers that I planted into my first flowerbed. That was way before I knew anything about blackspot. or roses. The next rose plant I buy will definitely be blackspot resistant. But for now I must deal with what I have, and that is rose plants with blackspot…

Blackspot damaged leaves

I gave Fruit Hill Farms in Cork a call last year (https://www.fruithillfarm.com/). They are an organic center and they suggested that I try and build up the health of the plant to prevent blackspot. I wasn’t too surprised to find that what they suggested, Mucofol, was quite smelly to use!

Rose plant early in the season

Rose plant (still healthy looking)

For those who wish the details of the Mucofol, here you go:

Mucofol (L) is absorbed by the leaves and the soil. Thanks to its root stimulant and crop care ingredients the roots, leaves and soil are increased with endogenic capacity and develop its own immune system. The ingredients in the product are working as soil conditioner, plant strengthener and have an indirect effect on pests and diseases. It consists of a highly concentrated composition of specific herbs based on water. The product is natural and of vegetable origin, non-toxic and not persistent. The product will be degraded in the soil and leaves no residues in nature.

Keeping track of rose plants…

The Mucofol is in liquid form which you then dilute with water. We sprayed the roses a few times early this spring. They initially seemed to be doing well. But unfortunately, the blackspot has appeared.

One of my climbing roses still looking good.

The same week that I noticed the blackspot, one of the blogs that I follow had a post about treating blackspot with milk. Kevin Lee Jacob, blogging from the Hudson Valley in New York (which is where I grew up), has a wonderful blog called A garden for the house. You can click on his post about treating blackspot here: http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/05/got-black-spot-get-milk/ It seems easy enough: add one part milk to two parts water, and spray once a week. The feedback on Kevin’s blog is quite good. I have my fingers crossed that it will keep the blackspot from spreading.

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868) late May early June (getting enough air circulation???)

I do know, as I am sure all of you do too, to clear away all of the bad leaves (and never put them in the compost). I pruned the roses this past winter to help with air circulation. I might have to revisit that, though, as my old fashioned rose plants (the Rosa Jacques Cartier) seem quite crowded despite my pruning.

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868) on June 14th (after two milk & water treatments)

For now, I have cut off as much of the blackspot affected leaves as possible, and I will continue to spray once a week with my water and milk spray. Oh, and I’ll be taking as many pictures as possible while they still look pretty!

Climbing rose in June

Climbing rose in June (evening sunlight)

It is amazing how different things look with different lighting! Our evenings can be so beautiful, with sunlight right up until 10 P.M.

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868) and bee

My garden has been buzzing for a few weeks now, with the busy sound of bees. Early this spring we had millions (really!) of lady birds (or called lady bugs, depending on where you are from). It was neat to see them all as they were everywhere! And unlike last year, I didn’t have any issue with aphids. At all. Just blackspot…

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868)

I hope if you have roses, they are nice and healthy! If you happen to get blackspot and try the milk/water solution, please let me know how that goes for you.

I started this post as a “Wordless Wednesday” idea. But I just have a really hard time not adding text! So I am going to forget about the wordless Wednesday part, and I’m just going to tell you about my peony. My father-in-law divided his peony plant for me a couple of years ago. Peony are fussy, so the first year nothing happened with my plant. The second year we had (maybe) a couple of flowers. Finally, this year we have a full shrub of flowers. Good things come to those who wait! 🙂

Peony flowers

I had enough blooms on the shrub that I didn’t mind cutting some. I actually waited a bit to cut them, so they were nearing the end of their lives anyway.

Peony in a water jug

My parents live in New York, so while Skyping with my mom I showed her my peony arrangement. Maybe you heard her gasp??? You see she gave me that beautiful vase. Well, I think it is a water jug but I used it as a vase. There are two to the set. But never would she imagine that I’d actually *use* it! They are quite special to her (and now to me), and beautiful, and more than 100 years old. Honestly, they’ve sat up high on my bookshelves for way too long. It was time to bring some of that beauty into our living space. I love it. And I think the peony flowers look lovely in it.

My special (water jug?) vase

I promised my mom I’d be careful with it. The peony flowers have since faded and the vase is back up high in its safe place again…

Peony in the garden at the front gate

I still have a few peony just barely hanging on to life in the garden. Even now they are providing a lovely splash of color.

Peony with rain in mid May

I tend to take lots and lots of pictures of individual flowers and close-ups. I like to be able to really focus in on one thing! But I actually have a picture of the area around our front gates as I had been working on one of the beds this past weekend. I hate taking pictures when weeds get in the way! (that explains why so few full bed pictures…) So this is a current picture of the peony flowers. Very, very, very near the end of their lives. But oh so beautiful even still.

That isn’t a picture of our “pink & purple” garden. It is a picture of the area before we created our garden. Over the weekend my husband complimented our pink & purple garden. It was a little funny because he said “we’ve done a really good job with this garden”. I was weeding it at the time. He was watching me. I have to say that I just stopped and looked at him for a moment, before he smiled and then said “oh, I mean *you* did a really good job”! Indeed. 🙂 Here is a post which tells (and shows) the process of my creating it. https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/making-a-flower-bed-one-bucket-of-topsoil-at-a-time/

Pink & Purple garden (May 31st)

I have boxwood, called box plant in Ireland, around the border. It struggled for at least a year, and I thought it wasn’t going to make it. I’ll spare showing you the pictures of it turning a rusty orange color. I fed it quite a few times this past winter and it is now finally showing new signs of healthy life. There are three larger box plants on the left in the above picture. My husband and I are debating on what to do with them. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sculpt them into something fun? 🙂

A better view of the box plant around the pink & purple garden

I have extended the garden a tiny bit since I first planted the box plant. I must bring that line of box plant down a bit further to complete the garden.

Parts of the garden have really filled out. The foxglove plant wasn’t planted by me. It is the second plant that has been planted courtesy of the birds! It seems to fit in nicely where it is, lucky enough!

foxgloves

The Erysimum Bowles plant is on its last leg I’m afraid. It gets quite woody, gangly and unruly after a few years. I will be replacing it at the end of this season, hopefully with another of the same. It is still quite pretty from the front!

Erysimum Bowles ‘Mauve’

Purple sensation allium gives great personality to the garden. It is a real attention getter! Our spring must have been quite mild as I only put in a couple of stakes just the other day for the allium. Normally they would be completely flopped over by now!

Allium ‘purple sensation’

Allium up-close

Those are all of the blooms in the pink & purple garden so far. I have a few more plants that should give it some color later on in the summer. Undoubtedly I’ll be shaking things up a bit and moving things around as I figure out sizes. For instance, that globe artichoke plant is double the size it was last year! We’ll see. And I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂

The globe artichoke plant is *huge*!

Happy June!
Dana

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Hi and Welcome to Mom in the Garden! Click on my picture above to learn more about me. I am a mom who loves being in the garden and I enjoy sharing my experiences here. I hope you enjoy them too!

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